


Eden

by runsinthefamily



Series: Purgatory [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Purgatory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-26
Updated: 2012-06-26
Packaged: 2017-11-08 15:30:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/444677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runsinthefamily/pseuds/runsinthefamily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
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    </blockquote>





	Eden

**Author's Note:**

> They turn a corner in the labyrinth and the colour smites Dean’s eyes. He hears Cas inhale beside him. 

“Cas, what -?” It is staggering, the sheer richness of the red, the thick carpet of leaves beneath the tree, the bunched glory of the foliage that still clings to the branches. After the unknowable time they’ve spent here with nothing but washed out drab everywhere they look, the sight of the tree is almost painful in its intensity. 

Cas takes a step forward, reaching out a hand. His eyes are wide, his mouth open a little. “It’s an Eden tree,” he says. 

“What, like, the garden? The apple and all that?”

Cas keeps on going until his hand is pressed against the gnarled black trunk. “This is a cutting from Joshua’s garden,” he says. “I can feel the echo of heaven in it.” He shuts his eyes and tilts his head back. A single, blinding-red leaf drifts down onto the collar of his coat.

“What’s it doing here?” Dean asks. The leaves are carpet-thick beneath his feet, yielding a strange sweet smell when crushed.

“Joshua must have planted it.” Cas glances at Dean. “Eons ago.”

“So - is this a safe place?”

“No,” Castiel says, sorrow in his eyes. “Only a beautiful one.” He draws away, reluctantly. “We should move on.”

Dean catches the leaf as it slips off Cas’ shoulder, twirls it between his fingers, and then hands it to Cas just as they pass again into the grey-green damp of the labyrinth. Cas takes it, confusion in his eyes.

“To remember,” says Dean, shrugging a little.

Cas dips his head and tucks the leaf into a pocket. “Thank you, Dean.” The shadow of his wings flare against the stone/wood tangle of the walls about them and Dean blinks at their almost bashful shuffle and when had he started to be able to read Cas’ wings?

Cas glances at him, and then the shadows are gone and Cas is lifting his eyebrows just a little, almost like a challenge.

“Let’s, uhm,” says Dean and then the air changes, the way it does when a shift is coming, and Cas lifts his blade and Dean drops into a crouch and the moment is swept away.


End file.
